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SpaceX held a press conference Monday to discuss the results of a multi-month survey conducted by NASA and by itself on an anomaly that occurred during a static firing test in April. The investigation revealed that the "anomaly" that occurred during the test was the result of a mixture of very high pressure oxidant with the helium component of the SuperDraco rocket engine propulsion system.
April 20, SpaceX conducted an engine abort test for a prototype of its Crew Dragon vehicle (which previously operated for the unprepared mission of the ISS). Crew Dragon was designed to be the first SpaceX spacecraft to equip its crew. He is subjected to numerous tests to prove that he is ready to take off for NASA. The test encountered an immediately visible failure after the first tests, with an unexpected explosion that caused a plume of flame visible for miles around the test site at its landing zone site 1 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. .
Build & Flight Reliability SpaceX BP Hans Koenigsmann and Kathy Lueders, head of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, briefed the media on the results of their joint investigation into the cause of this anomaly. Koenigsmann explained that, thanks to the identification of burn marks around a check valve in the system, it aimed to separate the oxidant and fuel components under pressure. These check valves contain a spring that can be opened and allow flow in the desired direction of the propellant components, but in this case, a leaking check valve resulted in a "plug" consisting of high pressure oxidant striking a titanium component that caused a very violent reaction, hence the explosion.
Lueders and Koenigsmann both pointed out that this was in many ways a gift during a ground test because it meant that many high-speed cameras could capture the incident, and that it was relatively easy to comb the site and recover components to better understand the cause of the anomaly. Koenigsmann also noted that although the team is confident in sharing these results, it actually accounts for only about 80% of the searches and there is about 20% left to find additional details, mainly around physics.
Koenigsmann said that SpaceX is already implementing a crucial hardware patch: replace the check valve with a check valve. A burst valve completely separates the oxidizer and fuel from any pressurizing fluid, which will alleviate the problem and make "Crew Dragon safer," he said.
So far this year, SpaceX has managed to launch an unprepared version of its spacecraft Crew Dragon 2 to the ISS during a mission in March and had planned to conduct the first mission of Crewed test in July, with a duration of two weeks. This certainly will not happen on time, and the ongoing production of the Crew Dragon crew will downgrade the designated one-generation machines, which means that the Crew Dragon 1 Crew crew craft is now available. test 2, etc.
Asked time and time again about the deadlines, neither Koenigsmann nor Lueders would offer anything concrete, they both expressed some skepticism about managing a launch by the end of the year, without excluding the possibility.
"There's always a chance we're flying a crew on a SpaceX vehicle this year," Lueders said, adding that "for the moment," NASA is paying close attention to all the tests underway on various systems and that " all of this must happen before we can be sure that the system will be able to fly our crew safely. "" I hope it will be for this year, "she added.
Koenigsmann pointed out that this was a problem he thought he could solve along with other problems that had to be solved with Crew Dragon before the crew flight. "I do not think it's impossible, but it's getting harder and harder," he said, however, when he was asked directly about a launch of the crew of Dragon that would take place before the end of 2019.
Lueders concluded by acknowledging the opening of SapceX to NASA and its astronauts throughout this process, and Koenigsmann reinforced the superiority of the break valve over the check valve replaced by this application.
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